It’s that time of year when kids hand out pink valentines! Pink, wot? Okay, we realize that not all children are fans of pink, so along with our classic pink-on-pink design, we also created one that goes beyond the usual go-to colors for the holiday. Our designs are so easy and fun your kids can make them too! Pull up an image on PicMonkey and play along at home!

Valentine #1: Cute Overload!

We’re going to show you how to create this design using Collage.

Start from Collage

Beginning in Collage, click the Layouts tab. Click Ducks in a Row and choose the second layout. For this design we used the dimensions 600 x 200. You can change the dimensions with the toolbar below your layout. To adjust your border spacing, click on the Backgrounds tab and set the “Spacing” slider to 10.

Add swatches

Next, go to the Swatches tab and select the Sweethearts theme from the dropdown menu. Click and drag the swatches into your empty cells. When you are finished, click the Edit button in the top toolbar. This will bring your design into the Editor, where you can add overlays and text.

Add dotted square borders

For the dotted outlines around each valentine, click the Overlays tab. Click the dotted square in Labels. Click and drag the circular handles on the corners of the overlay to resize it and then pick a color.

Quick Tip: how to duplicate an overlay

A really easy way to add the same overlay to your canvas multiple times is to duplicate it. Right-click on your overlay and select “Duplicate overlay” from the menu.

Add the critters

Find the animal overlays in Ordinary Beasts. The bunny, the cat, and the monkey are two-color overlays. The beauty of two-color overlays is that they give you so much variety. You can have two different colors, the same color, or make a color transparent. For this design, make Color 2 transparent.

Add the message

Now it is time to add text to the design. Click the Text tab and select the Unkempt font. Click the “Add Text” button at the top of the text menu and type the text into the text box that appears on your canvas. You can change the text size by using the “Size” slider in the Text palette or by moving the circular handles on the corners of the text box. After you have the size set for your text, move the text box into place on the canvas. Now all you have left is to add the text for the other two squares.

Valentine #2: Very Punny

We’re going to show you how to create this design using our new blank canvas feature.

Start from a blank canvas

Hover over the “Design” button at the top of the home page and you’ll be shown six different canvas sizes. Select “Custom” and type 600 x 200 in the size boxes that appear below. After you click “Do it” you will be taken to Basic Edits to pick a color for your canvas. By default, the canvas is white so you are all set to start adding shapes to your canvas.

Add background squares

To create the colored squares for your background, click Geometric in the Overlays tab. Click the square to add it to your canvas. Hover over the corners of the square until the double arrow cursor appears. Click and drag it to resize the square. Click on the square and move it into place on the canvas.

Tip: To make it easy to create the other two squares, go ahead and pick a color by either selecting a color from the color picker or typing in the color’s hex value. To match the color we are using in this project, type the color hex value “c5dae1” next to “Color” in the upper right corner. You can duplicate your overlay, as explained above, to get your next two squares.

Add Overlays

Now that you have all of your squares set up, it’s time to add some fun characters to the mix. Here are the overlays you will be using: the owl from Cutimals, the robot from the Santa Land theme (in Stuffers), and the mustache from Facial Hair. Once you’ve grabbed the three overlays, you can resize and move them into position on the canvas.

To get the owl to match the color of the robot, click on the owl and the overlay palette will become visible. Now, click on the eye dropper and click again on a color you want from the robot. Boom! Owlie is the same color. Add a tiny heart overlay on top of the robot’s chest.Tip: When you add the heart on top of the robot, the two white lines on the robot’s body detract from the heart overlay. Get rid of them by placing a square overlay, from Geometric, over the two lines. Then match the exact blue color with the eyedropper tool. Now your heart can stand out!

You’re almost done. All you have left to do is add text to the design. Head on over to the Text tab. You can follow the text instructions above, for the pink valentines. In this design we used two fonts: Emily’s Candy and Bangers.

There you have it: two different ways to make sweet lil’ valentines for sweet lil’ kids.

Yay! love this tutorial. I’ve used Picmonkey for a few projects and never realized you can start from a collage and then click edit to make changes in the editor!! Duhh!! Thanks so much. My nieces will love these little gifts.